I just got a job today, finally, after nearly 3 months of not having one.

Monday, I had an interview with the company so I went down at 9am and had the interview. They said expect to hear from us in about a week. Today (Wednesday) I get a phone call at 11:45am asking me if I was available to come for a second interview that afternoon, to which I said no problem. I went down and at 2.30pm I had the interview. By 3pm I had been offered a 1 month trial period (I got the job basically) on minimum wage. After 1 month I will be reviewed for my work and objectives. If I have completed them to the standard they wanted, I will get a pay rise to the normal pay amount.

The job is basically like my last one (if you could call that a job). I will be doing Web Design and Technical Support. The guys I'll be working with sound pretty cool and are not much older than myself either which is great. I can do everything they ask for except for Flash design, but thats not a problem since the manager of the web design team does all of that. The other guy is, what he considers a "hard core" web programmer but he said its not that bad really! He said I should expect to work overtime though which, if I need the money, will be great.

The best thing about this is that not only do I have a job that will pay me properly, but at lunch time we get to play games like CSS and Doom!!! The other two guys said they play quite a bit of that in their lunch hour. I will probably be checking forums and doing server stuff though but thats just me

Anyway, I think thats all you need to know for now but I'll let you guys know how I get on. I start tomorrow by the way Quick start I know but that shows they were keen to have me in the company. I hope that sticks and I can show them what I know.

Hello all,The best thing about this is that not only do I have a job that will pay me properly, but at lunch time we get to play games like CSS and Doom!!! The other two guys said they play quite a bit of that in their lunch hour. I will probably be checking forums and doing server stuff though but thats just me Andy (Admin)

_________________"Theory is when you know something, but it doesn't work. Practice is when something works, but you don't know why. Programmers combine theory and practice: Nothing works and they don't know why."

A little problem has cropped up regarding this new job... Let me explain...

On Monday, at the end of the working day (5pm) I was called into the office for a little chat with one of the "Boss" people. Not big boss, but a boss non the less. She told me that the two guys I was working with, the guys who were showing me how to do my job etc so on so forth, were going away for a 2 week holiday. This would leave me alone in the office to do the work with no help and no support. Now because I had just started, the boss thought that it would be unfair on throwing me in at the deep end and trying to stick it out on my own for 2 weeks. Because of this, she decided it would be better if I were to take the 2 weeks off also (without pay, I might add) and come back when the other two guys return.

Now, in this little chat she mentioned that she had been checking up on the work I was doing and it was very un-satisfactory. E.G. no where near what she would expect from someone working at the company. So her conclusion to that was I was struggling with the job. And she wasn't wrong. I got this job because the job description was "Web Designer and Technical Support", two things I LOVE doing. My previous job was doing this and I loved it until the boss screwed himself over and I ended up resigning. But anyway what I was doing on this job was way out of the job description. I was being asked to make "e-shots", newsletter type e-mail templates in HTML. Sure, I could do this no problem, no complaints there. But I was also being asked to design and fill with content a brochure for the company using software (Adobe InDesign) that I had never used in my life. I was expected to know how to use it and make professional looking brochures with it from a badly printed word document as a guide. Now I don't know about you but that is definitely way out of my job description as a web designer and technical support engineer. However, I persisted, and after many "tellings off" and comments from the guys I work with, they finally got something they were "happy" with. Not ecstatic, just happy with.

Anyway, trying to cut a long story short, I came home on Monday with 2 weeks off in front of me trying to decide what I should do. I phoned my dad on the way home and explained everything. He thought the decision was very unprofessional and they should have known what they were getting themselves into. From what we can both gather, they were attempting to employ me as quickly as possible to take over the role of the two guys going on holiday for 2 weeks so there was no disruption. Not a fat chance in hell was that ever going to happen. Not only could I not do the work I was given, but I didn't know how the company worked, I didn't know what the abbreviations meant that they kept using relating to companies/clients, and I didn't even know that many people there, probably 3 or 4 people at most. All of that would have meant I would be in the dark as soon as they left. I wouldn't have been able to do the work they had left me because I wouldn't know what it was.

Anyway, basically the job simply wasn't right for me. I decided that and told my dad who partly agreed with me but also said I should try and stick it out and see what happens, at least until I find another job. I disagreed for several reasons. There is no point in me going to do a job I cannot physically do and I have no way to learn. I wanted the job because it offered what I could do and what I wanted to do, not because I wanted to do something completely different away from my ability. If I knew I was going to be doing brochure designing instead of web design and tech support I wouldn't have signed up for the job. Its as simple as that. Apart from the fact its costing me £5 a day in fuel to get there and back (almost 45 miles a day total), I just don't have the money to "waste" on going to a job with no future for me. £5 a day ends up being 15% of my total wages a month just getting to and from the job.

Anyhow, I was at the job center today and explained the situation, and they agreed it was the right decision not to continue with the job if I couldn't do it and/or wouldn't enjoy it. Next week I need to ring the boss up and tell her I won't be returning because of the situation above. I already explained it earlier this week and she said she understood but wanted to give me every opportunity possible, but would understand if I wanted to leave.

So all in all, the situation isn't that bad, but the only downside to it all is I now don't have a job and I'm back to square one finding one. However I am having more luck finding jobs I can do and would like to do so I am going to stick at it and continue looking and sending off CV's.

Sorry this was such a bloody long post but it gets the full story across!